Friday, 23 March 2012

I've something quite different from my recent projects to share with you today. I found a pack of Papermania Kraft tags in my stash and thought I'd do a tag design for a change.

Firstly I prepared the Kraft base tag using some Antique Linen and Picket Fence Distress Stains plus a Rhubarb Stalk Memento dewdrop ink pad dragged around the edges. Using a TCW 'Splats' mask and Memento Paris Dusk ink, I created a random design, then applied some Viva 3D Glitter Gel in Gold randomly in patches over the base layer.

Using the Papermania Botanical Print stamp set, I stamped the script image on to the tag using Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and the flower image using Paris Dusk Memento at the bottom. I also stamped the scalloped butterfly and script stamp on to a scrap of Kraft cardstock with Rich Cocoa and added a little extra colour with Copics. Inking just the largest butterly on another of the stamps with Paris Dusk Memento ink, I stamped this onto a scrap of Kraft cardstock.

I then cut out the scalloped image and butterfly and attached them to the tag after tying a length of fancy thread around and through a small charm. Finally I added a little more of the 3D glitter gel on the butterfly and scalloped layer to finish off with a bit of sparkle.

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

I'm loving the sweet Marianne's Designs die sets I recently bought, sweet little birds, birdhouses and a great picket fence are among them and I've used a few for the elements on today's card.

I coloured this sweet Lili of the Valley image with my Copics whilst at the fabulous Craftathon held in Bristol in February - where a number of Craftbubble members got together for a weekend of crafting and socialising - but I hadn't used it on a card until now. There's Glossy Accents on the book to give it some dimension and Stardust Stickles around the edges of the image layer.

The grass, fence, birds and birdhouse were all cut with Marianne's dies using my Cuttlebug and bits of Stampin' Up cardstock and the background papers are magazine freebies which are just perfect with the floral theme and colours which match those I used on the image.

Thursday, 15 March 2012

My lovely pal Lauren set the saturday sketchie challenge over on the Craftbubble 'Craft Mad & Loving It' group this week with the theme 'Sail Away'.

I do love this Lili of the Valley stamp, he's a real cutie and perfect for the challenge. I coloured the image with my Copics and added Glossy Accents to the boat to give it some dimension. The background papers are from the Papermania Portobello Road pack and I tied some natural twine around to secure the button. The sentiment was a diecut from a Goody Bag I received in a Secret Santa gift at Christmas.

A Nice clean and bright design for this one, not too fancy or fussy so ideal for a guy's card, after all no matter what age they are all still little boys I find !!

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

I'm loving playing with my new pastels, creating pretty backgrounds and using masks. I was thinking I hadn't used my lovely Lavinia stamps in a while, so thought I'd combine them with a pastel background.

I firstly created a mask by cutting an aperture using a nestie die and my Cuttlebug. I then used a mixture of colours of pastels to create a background scene through the scalloped aperture onto a blank card.

The Lavinia toadstool houses and small toadstools images were stamped using black chalk ink over the pastel background. I then tried a technique I'd seen in the latest issue of Craft Stamper. After stamping the images lightly, I used a black marker to roughly draw over the top to give it a hand drawn effect. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up! and again was stamped using black chalk ink. Finally I added touches of Stardust Stickles to give the design a little 'Fairy Dust' effect.

I do enjoy the challenge of creating a one layer card, and my new pastels are just perfect for this type of work.

Thanks for dropping by, I've more projects to share in the next few days.

Sunday, 11 March 2012

I must apologise for not posting anything up here for such a long time. What with the building going on in the house installing the kitchen and refurbishing the ensuite, the house has been in such a state that I couldn't find much of my stash or get a space in which to craft. I'm still battling the dust but at least the kitchen and ensuite are completely finished now and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out.

I'm pleased to say that my health is now very much improved and in fact I saw my surgeon last tuesday and he is happy with my progress and doesn't need to see me again - Hurrah ! I do feel so much better now and am working on increasing my stamina and getting back to normal.

The other reason I haven't been blogging lately is that my Mojo had just totally disappeared - didn't have a single design in my head for a project, nada, zilch ! It felt like I might never craft again as I didn't know where to start, but I decided yesterday to sit down and make something, no matter how it turned out, even if it was only good for the bin at the end of it !

It's a while since I made an entry for the Less is More Challenge so I decided to check out this week's theme and use this for my first project in ages. We've to use script on our projects this week and make a one layer card.

I received some money for my birthday recently and was wondering what to spend it on, so I got myself some pastels to play with. I created a background using pastels and a TCW butterfly design mask. I then used a couple of stamps from the Papermania Botanical Print set, one of which included some script in the design and the other was this pretty little butterfly. Both were stamped with Rich Cocoa Memento ink straight over the pastel background. I then hand doodled a frame around the main image with a brown marker pen.

Clean and Simple and I hope it fits into this week's LIM challenge OK.

Thanks so much for dropping by today, now I've started crafting again, I hope I'll have more to share with you over the coming days.

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All projects published on my blog are copyright to me - I am happy to share my designs here in the hope that they may inspire you to develop your own ideas. However please respect my right not to have my designs copied or "lifted" or entered for publication, competitions, etc. Direct copying of any design shown on this blog is an infringement of copyright.